Well - some good news!! The Southend Airport MD is quoted in this week's local freebie "Yellow Advertiser" newspaper as saying that SEN is investing heavily in new bar / restaurant facilities and hope to have these open in early 2015. Presumably this applies to the large boarded-off area in the airside Terminal extension?
That does seem like a jolly long time to wait but - a nice new bar / restaurant will - whenever they open - be an excellent addition to the current facilities. Hopefully even if it is NOT actually a Wetherspoons - it will follow the Wetherspoons model.